Witcher: Blood Origin- No Polish Allowed

#FormerNetworkExec #CallMeChato #witcherbloodorigin
For a show that is based on Polish folklore it is laughably devoid of Polish characters or actors.

2001 Polish produced The Witcher:

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[walkir]

Not only was there no Polish involvement, it wasn't even polished.

[Pelamore]

I'm Polish/Norwegian, and they have taken EVERYTHING from me! LOL
When they decided a 5'4" black woman was "Valkyrie" I was pissed. Now they've come for the other half!

[swojchwat]

That reminds me of a joke I've heard some time ago.
Americans have sent a spy to Russia. They trained him for several years before the mission. He spoke perfect russian, he knew russian customs and history. He even was trained to drink vodka like a pro. So he had infiltrated Russia, spent there some time and one day he is sitting with some russian soldiers by the fire. And suddenly one of the soldier says..
- Sasha, you speake like russian, you drink like russian, and you act like russian.... but you are not russian.
The spy got all sweaty and asks : why do you think so?
- because you're black.- said the soldier.

This situation is more possible today if us inteligence would take info about the world form modern TV.

[fulcrum]

I’m Polish. The Witcher TV shows were a disgrace to begin with, this just takes the icing on the cake. I find it amazing how everyone can scream and cry for representation, but when I tell people how important the Witcher is to my culture and country, those same people tell me to sit down and shut up.

Edit: thanks for all the replies - at to that one guy that proved my point

PS - I’m a woman 😂

[kmoustakas]

"Mirror the population of los angeles" is such an insightful point. I appreciate it. It's not universal diversity, it's american culture of hollywood diversity. Literally no one outside the US gets this.

[Jasmixd]

As a Pole, it's so mindblowing to see the old Polish Witcher TV show being used as an example of how to do it right. Man, how the times have changed :D

[to-mira]

100% richt. Do you remember the story when a British actress was outraged by the lack of black actors in Chernobyl? The absolute lack of Ukrainian and Russian actors, however, did not bother her.

[thisguydan]

Isn't it ironic that the more "diverse" all of these shows are, the more homogenous they begin to feel? It's like they're casting for a retail clothing store catalog.

[wallung]

German here. Fun Fact: The "Wild Hunt" aka "Wilde Jagd" is a German and Germanic tradition which ends exactly today, at the 06. Jan. Its the end of the "Raunächte", meaning something like "harsh nights", which are the 12 typically cold and stormy nights after Christmas, where legend has it that Woden (Odin) raged upon the skies with his army. Greetings to my polish neighbors!

[RollingThunder]

I honestly had to laugh because your 100% right when you said Ethnic diversity does not matter for them. For them a Polish, a Hungarian, a Croatian and a Swede are practically the same when that couldn't be further from the truth but hey for them they are all just white.
So yeah didn't know your channel before but you have my sub

[phlogistonix]

Excellent point! In addition to Slavic lore, the appearance of many locations in the games are based on Polish influences. It's why the games have a distinctive style. If cultural appropriation is forbidden, then let's hold everyone to account equally. Or equitably, even.

[LeadwithGrace]

As a Polish woman who studied acting in London and New York, having a very limited material there to work with because of my ethnicity and being so proud of our Polish heritage and folklore (being a gamer as well having played the game too) I am deeply saddened to see this ethnic slaughter that has been done to this incredibly important body of work. Instead of making it a Polish Netflix production, or Polish/German Netflix production (and I dare say we have high standards of production here, if you don’t know read more about Polish cinematography and watch the actual shows, I say that as a tv producer myself) and let us celebrate our shared culture and traditions, Hollywood took it, spun it around and spat it out. If there was one Polish creation that is respected and loved by many around the globe it was taken away to be changed, to have its character removed completely. ABSOLUTELY BAFFLING and quite frankly heartbreaking, being erased from a creation that came to be out of our own folklore…

For those of you, who are interested in the Polish lore with a bit of modern spin please watch a series of short videos by Tomasz Bagiński (who was nominated for the Academy Award in 2003). Just look for “Allegro, Tomasz Baliński” on YouTube and see productions like “Yaga”. Enjoy!😊

[missAlice]

As a Pole, I want to thank you for standing up for us. But here's the thing. It's not necessarily about Polish people being represented or Polish actors getting the roles, it's more about SLAVIC people in general. Polish is a nationality, Slavic is an ethnicity, and the mythology that inspired the Witcher books and games existed long before our country emerged. Now, every Slavic country is different but we can't really talk about Polish mythology, we talk about Slavic mythology. We, Slavic people, may live in several different countries but we're all part of the same ethnic group, which should be adequately represented in any adaptation of this universe. And it would be, if we weren't white. Our skin colour is the problem. Not even the actions of our ancestors (Slavs had no colonies, no slavery but on the contrary, they suffered oppresion from Nazi Germany, just type "anti-Slavic" in Google).
Nevertheless, I'm extremely grateful to you for using your voice to signal the problem with "americanization" of the Witcher universe.

[DarekSobera]

Being 100% Polish, I put my stamp of approval on this.
Great video, as always!
This diversity crap in Hollywood has to end.

[halszka]

Hi, I am from Poland and yes, Netlix adaptation had not respect our folklore at all. Thank you for this video:)

[toadsmoothy]

The really sad thing is, the writers wouldn't know Slavic folklore from Germanic, and they're writing this show. They could have really dug into this property and showed us a culture most of us haven't been exposed to. I guess that was too hard for them.

[t.c.s.]

Interesting analysis.
This phenomenon is rather like making a show about Japanese Samurai mythology but not casting any Japanese actors.

[Kanikanihia]

This video made me so happy.
I’m not Polish, but Romanian, so geographically really close and with many cultural similarities and I was (cautiously) excited to see some Eastern European representation. Didn’t expect them to go overboard of course, but ffs, all I wanted was some tiny piece of fabric with EE folk motifs at the very least. Just ffs, throw some table cloths with folk patterns in the background of a tavern scene. Give the women some shirts inspired by peasant blouses. How hard can it be?
I don’t even want much cause I know our lack of melanin and the general geographical placement in Europe makes us villains, but just a crumb.
Disappointed but not surprised.
This in contrast with how the Japanese created Resident Evil Village which takes place in Romania and it made me tear up to see how well documented it was.
Yes, there were folk motifs, houses that looked like they came straight from my childhood at my grandma (minus the scary part lol), a werewolf creature with a face resembling ritual, shamanic masks from Romania, the food, even Alcina’s surname was so accurate for her time, Dimitrescu being the old version of this name, the new one being Dumitrescu. A difference of one letter, but that told me how much care and respect they had for my culture.
All I can say is that I’m glad Henry left them and I’m glad they’re getting their due reward, seeing everyone dragging them through muck.😌

[MW-zzmv]

As a 100% Polish American, I am very happy and honored that you spelled "polack" correctly. Now if you will excuse me, I will go back to installing that screen door in the submarine.

[CallMeChato]

Sapkowski himself has said that his influences were the knights of the round table and Germanic and French stories. It was the game that made it more Slavic so take it easy. Hitler became a German citizen in 1932. Having fun. This is NOT the history channel for crying out loud.